Darran Scott

Darran Scott Case Summary

from ABC.net.au on 2017-10-27:

“Darran Scott, former Mormon high priest, jailed for sexually abusing 11 boys
ABC Gippsland
/ By Robert French
Posted Thu 26 Oct 2017 at 10:33pm
Thursday 26 Oct 2017 at 10:33pm
, updated Thu 26 Oct 2017 at 10:38pm
Thursday 26 Oct 2017 at 10:38pm

A judge has jailed a man for 10 years over child sexual abuse in Victoria’s east, describing him as a “sexual predator” who showed no remorse.

Darran Scott, of Archies Creek, will spend at least seven years behind bars after he pleaded guilty to 16 charges relating to child sexual abuse.

Scott, now 53, worked as a film director, actor and as a freelance cameraman for WIN News.

He started grooming his victims in the early 1990s as a junior football coach in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

The County Court in Morwell heard he plied the boys with sleeping pills, cannabis, alcohol and pornography.

He also indecently assaulted several victims on surfing trips and at his home, near Wonthaggi on Victoria’s Bass Coast.

In sentencing, Judge John Smallwood told Scott he had “ruined lives” and hadn’t shown any remorse “other than self pity”.

“It’s a long way from the remorse anticipated from a man who has done the damage that you have,” he told Scott.
Attempted cover-up

Allegations about Scott’s offending led police to interview him in 2005 but he denied any wrongdoing.

The same year he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, and used his position to groom another six boys.

In one instance Scott encouraged two boys, who were staying at his Archies Creek home, to expose themselves and shoot each others genitals with pellet guns.

He also tried to have a witness lie to police about the incident.

Judge Smallwood told Scott that it was only the victim’s “revelations to the police and the apprehension that stopped your offending, nothing else.”

“During all that time you had done nothing in terms of treatment or made any endeavours to get help,” he said.

Scott told a psychologist he did not know what he was doing when he sexually abused the boys, but that was dismissed by Judge Smallwood.

“You knew what you were doing was not only wrong in the individual sense but very, very wrong in a social sense,” he said.
A mother’s guilt

The court heard excerpts from victim impact statements, including one from the mother of two boys that were abused by Scott.

She said “the guilt I feel as a parent is so heavy that we let our kids stay with this monster, and all happened without us even knowing”

“It’s overwhelming and suffocating”

“I’d do anything to turn back the clock and save my children from the horror they’ve been through, but I can’t and we have to learn how to survive one day at a time”

Scott will be a registered sex offender for life.”

—

from the Salt Lake Tribune on 2017-10-30:

“An Australian filmmaker who made a movie about basketball-playing Mormon missionaries has been sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of sexually abusing boys — some of whom he met as a leader in his local LDS congregation.

Darran Scott, 53, pleaded guilty to 16 charges related to the sexual abuse of 11 boys over a 25-year period, according to a report Friday by the Australian Broadcasting Co. (ABC). He will serve at least seven years in prison and will be listed on a sex-offender registry for life.

According to testimony before the County Court in Morwell, in the Australian state of Victoria, Scott started grooming his victims in the early 1990s, when he was a junior football coach in the suburbs east of Melbourne. He joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint in 2005 and reportedly lured another six boys while serving as a youth leader in his ward.

In one case, the court heard, Scott hosted two boys at his house in Archies Creek, about 80 miles southeast of Melbourne. He encouraged the boys to expose themselves and shoot pellet guns at each other’s genitals. Scott later tried to cajole a witness to lie to police about the incident.

Judge John Smallwood, in handing down the sentence, said Scott had “ruined lives” and that he showed no remorse “other than self-pity.”

“It’s a long way from the remorse anticipated from a man who has done the damage that you have,” Smallwood told Scott.

According to the ABC, Smallwood dismissed Scott’s assertion to a psychologist that he didn’t know what he was doing when he abused the boys. “You knew what you were doing was not only wrong in the individual sense but very, very wrong in a social sense,” Smallwood told Scott.

When Scott was arrested in August 2016, he was initially charged with some 50 cases of abusing boys. That arrest prevented Scott from traveling to Park City, Utah, for the world premiere of his movie “Spirit of the Game,” which opened the inaugural Park City International Film Festival, an event showcasing family-friendly movies.

“Spirit of the Game” told the true story of the Mormon Yankees, LDS missionaries in Australia in the 1950s who connected with the locals through basketball, and helped prepare Australia’s national team for the 1956 Summer Olympics. The movie, which co-starred Kevin Sorbo of “Hercules” fame, had a limited theatrical run last fall.”